


Stray Cat Strut

by fatedfeathers



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Cats, Fluff, M/M, fluff and cats, pure fluff, that’s it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 12:04:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13294494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fatedfeathers/pseuds/fatedfeathers
Summary: What’s an apartment building without stray cats in the alleys?





	Stray Cat Strut

There were cats behind the apartment building. Not a lot; two, maybe three or four regular visitors with a couple other itinerant passers by. If pressed Juno might admit to recognizing the one big tabby with the torn ear and four missing eyes because it was there most often, but he knew the others. He fed them, when he remembered; often he remembered to feed them more often than himself. It was never anything fancy, just a can of fish or a couple chicken wings that would go bad before he’d remember to eat them, and he hadn’t really liked them all that much _so stop staring at him, dammit, just eat the food and stop rubbing against my legs._

So he fed the cats. Not every day, but often enough that whenever he stepped into the alley behind the building a cat or two would walk up to him, purring, and butt against his legs for a brief head scritch. The big tabby especially liked coming up to him, was the friendliest of the bunch. It liked its chin scratched and the food Juno brought. It only liked him for the food, anyways; the food was the only reason any of the cats liked him, but Juno liked the thought of these cats being happy to see him regardless of the reason. At least he could do right by someone, even if the someone in question was a group of stray alley cats.

Juno had had a string of good, easy cases, and had been able to put something out every night for the cats for the past week or so, but that night had been a long one. He’d been out on a stakeout all day and into the night, and when he got home to his apartment the last thing on his mind had been feeding the cats. Instead, he barely made it out of his shoes and jacket before falling face-first into bed and passing out.

It was good, dreamless sleep. Probably the best he’d had in a while. Which is why he shouldn’t have been surprised to be jolted out of it at three in the morning by a loud, unhappy yowling right outside his window. He snapped up, half asleep and half pure adrenaline. He stumbled out of his bed, grabbed his blaster from his bedside table, and made his way over to the window, all to the soundtrack of a screeching cry. He slammed the window open to see what the _fuck_ was making such a racket at _three in the fucking morning_ only to be knocked back by a mass of screaming fur and muscle.

He blinked down at the shape sitting on his lap—the thing was strong, had knocked him clean off his feet and onto the floor— and narrowly avoided getting clawed in the nose by the cat. It opened its mouth, needle sharp teeth on full display, and let out another shrieking yowl. Juno winced and shoved the cat onto the floor and stood up. He tried to shoo it back out the window with promises of food later in the morning and threats of no food in the morning, but the tabby was stubborn. It hopped up on Juno’s bed and cried back at the detective, refusing to leave. Juno took a moment to gather himself and consider that he was having an argument with a cat of all things, before giving up and stalking into the kitchen. He banged around in the cupboards for a can of fish, nearly tripping no less than four times over the cat, now purring, who had started weaving through his legs.

He cursed at the damn furball under his breath as he opened the can, as he put it on the floor, and as the cat ate. When it was done, it sat in the middle of the kitchen floor, cleaning it’s paws and face delicately. It blinked at Juno with its two remaining eyes when he tried to shoo it out the window once more, before returning to its ever so important task of licking itself clean. Juno sighed, resigned, and decided try to go back to sleep.

……

Peter came home a week later to find his detective asleep with a big tabby cat curled on the pillow next to him. When it raised its head to look at the newcomer, the bell on its collar jingled slightly, just loud enough to rouse Juno. He looked over at Peter, blinking slowly.

Peter smiled, a soft quirk of his lips. “I didn’t know you were a cat person, darling.”

Juno buried his face into the pillow with a groan.

**Author's Note:**

> The collar was from Rita. It has a tag that says ‘Furball’ But Juno wrote ‘Damn’ in sharpie above it because “it deserves to have its full name on the tag”


End file.
